In response to “A Jewish case for Brown Divest,” we, a group of Jewish students at Brown, would like to offer a different Jewish perspective and articulate why opposing divestment is in line with Jewish values. The authors contend that their Jewish identity “compels (them) to speak up for two primary reasons: Jewish religious and political history and Israel’s claim to speak for all Jews.” We seek to unpack both of these justifications and propose a better alternative to divestment.

On the point of Jewish religious and political history, they cite the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam, making the world a better place, as a reason to support Brown Divest. This forces us to confront the question: Does Brown Divest realize its ultimate goal of enhancing the wellbeing of those affected by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict? The answer, unfortunately, is no.

Brown Divest distorts the complexity of the conflict, fuels militancy and extremism on both sides and hinders the prospect of peace. We acknowledge the suffering of Palestinians, but Brown Divest ignores the fact that innocent Israeli citizens feel the pain of the conflict in the form of countless suicide bombings, stabbings, kidnappings and other terror attacks. The divestment referendum places the blame for the current conflict on Israel, but in reality both sides share blame.

The divestment movement divides the Brown community and widens the chasm between Israelis and Palestinians. A solution that is truly based in Tikkun Olam would promote reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians through constructive measures, such as group meetings in which Israelis and Palestinians can share their historical and lived experiences in order to increase mutual understanding and promote open dialogue.

Second, the authors assume the responsibility to condemn Israel because “Israel claims to speak for us (the Jewish people).” The authors point to Netanyahu’s recent deplorable comments as a reason to support divestment. However, this wrongly conflates rhetoric of contemporary leadership with the situation on the ground. Just as the words of Donald Trump certainly do not represent the views of all Americans, we should not take the word of an indicted prime minister in an election season to represent Israel. Israel is a democratic state with a multiplicity of views. Let us be clear: there is nothing wrong with criticizing or condemning Israeli leaders; in fact, doing so is part of a democracy — and it is what Israelis do regularly. But if it were really about denouncing Netanyahu or reforming Israeli policies, the divestment would not be focused on crippling Israel’s economy, which Brown Divest aims to do. That is an unwarranted response that sets aims on taking down the one Jewish state, not a government policy, and it is unacceptable.

Many Israelis and Palestinians want peace, as is evidenced by the numerous movements to promote peaceful coexistence, according to a 2018 study. Pledging to divest from these companies only stands to push Israeli voters to the right. It undermines the efforts of more moderate and left-wing Israeli political parties that blast settlement movements and call for human rights, anti-racism, Palestinian statehood and above all, peace. It only makes the work of those working on the ground toward a peaceful solution that much harder.

Today, we celebrate Purim, a holiday whose central theme is “achdut” — unity. As Jews who stand against Brown Divest, we stand for bringing people together rather than driving them apart, as Divest has by seeking to dichotomize one of the modern world’s most complex and deeply rooted historical conflicts into a simple “yes” or “no” checkbox decision. In the spirit of this holiday, we urge you to vote no to divestment and instead use your voices to foster unity and, ultimately, peace. We pray that everyone will join us on our quest for Tikkun Olam.

]]>http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/letter-jewish-case-brown-divest/feed/0http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/letter-jewish-case-brown-divest/Paxson speaks on national admissions scandalhttp://feeds.browndailyherald.com/~r/BrownDailyHerald/~3/RPvXCQpsDWE/
http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/paxson-speaks-national-admissions-scandal/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 05:01:50 +0000http://www.browndailyherald.com/?p=2834587President Christina Paxson P ’19 assured community members that the University was not involved in the national college admissions scandal during yesterday’s Brown University Community Council Meeting. The BUCC also discussed the University’s plans for new facilities and increased sustainability efforts on campus and beyond.

As reported on March 12, numerous college staffers and parents of students across the country were indicted for conspiracy to commit racketeering. The allegations include bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and fabrication of student records to increase students’ chances at admission. “None of the indicted families are parents of Brown students, … (and) none of the indicted coaches have worked at Brown,” Paxson said.

Since the scandal broke, the University has conducted a “case-by-case review” of every varsity athlete, Paxson said. The University is now “satisfied” that no current varsity student athletes were “pretending to be … athlete(s)” in their applications in order to increase their chances of admission, she added.

Paxson stressed the University’s commitment to both “the integrity of our admissions process … (and) educating students from the widest range of socioeconomic backgrounds.”

The University’s Admission Office “has a very productive collaboration with the athletics department,” Paxson said. “The applications of student athletes are really reviewed,” and the admissions process has “checks and balances” to ensure that each application is properly scrutinized.

Still, Paxson emphasized the need to discuss the scandal and to remain vigilant for similar, undiscovered instances of bribery and fraud in which the University could be implicated.

“It’s possible that there are many more students out there whose parents have paid to have their SAT or ACT scores doctored that we don’t know about yet,” Paxson said. “Maybe it was just blind luck” that the University was not involved in the scandal, she added.

After Paxson spoke, Vice President for Facilities Management Michael Guglielmo presented the University’s design for a new facility for lacrosse and soccer.

The goal of this new project is to “enhance team and game-day experiences,” Guglielmo said. While the facility’s design is still in a “very conceptual” stage, the University is scheduled to break ground on construction in May, with an anticipated opening for games in February 2020, he added.

The three-story facility will be able to seat around 3000 people and is expected to include wheelchair accessibility for both the building and the bleachers, Guglielmo said. The facility will utilize indoor plumbing as opposed to the outdoor portable toilets, which are currently used during Brown’s soccer and lacrosse sporting events, he added.

Guglielmo also discussed the University’s plans for a new Performing Arts Center, which will be a transformative space designed to accommodate a variety of performances and events.

During the meeting, Associate Provost for Academic Space Leah VanWey presented the University’s newly approved sustainability initiative to the BUCC. The initiative is dedicated to achieving a 75 percent reduction in on-campus greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and net-zero on-campus emissions by 2040, The Herald previously reported.

The plan is “making a difference in the world and making a difference at Brown,” VanWey said.

This deal comes after months of negotiations with Deloitte, following technical issues with RI Bridges since its launch in 2016. These failures resulted in long backlogs and wait times for public assistance programs, affecting Rhode Islanders who depend on benefits such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid. Going forward, the state will pay Deloitte only for future operation and maintenance costs, estimated to total $30 million until the contract expires in 2021. In return for the discounted rate of service and Deloitte’s past and future payments to the state,Rhode Island will not sue Deloitte over past failures of the RI Bridges system.

The deal stipulates that Deloitte will pay the state $50 million, part of a total $210 million in cash and discounts since the system’s launch, according to a state press release.

In addition to the financial agreement, the deal includes Deloitte’s commitments to provide continued operational support and to deliver free transition services if the State hires a new provider, according to a report from the Department of Human Services. The agreement will also increase Deloitte’s accountability for fixing problems with the RI Bridges system and require that it provides broader warranty protections, the report stated. According to Gov. Raimondo, this settlement is unprecedented in scale.

Deloitte has been working hard to right these wrongs, wrote Senior Manager for Federal and Public Sector Public Relations Megan Doern in an email to The Herald. “We accepted responsibility for the technical issues that impacted Rhode Island residents and worked collaboratively with the state to make things right, dedicating the resources and expertise necessary to improve access to benefits, comply with state and federal mandates, and enhance workers’ efficiency,” she wrote.

These efforts have significantly improved the RI Bridges system, resulting in a 70 percent reduction in system issues, the state’s press release reported. According to Courtney E. Hawkins, director of the Rhode Island Department of Human Services, these strides in performance improved access for those who use RI Bridges — nearly one-third of Rhode Islanders.

“Now, the overall backlog is down, SNAP timeliness is averaging 96 percent, renewals are being processed and more work is being performed in the system,” Hawkins wrote in an email to The Herald. “There’s more work to be done, such as improvements to make our customer portal more user-friendly, and we will work with Deloitte to stay on a path to additional success.”

Deloitte’s statement echoed this dedication to future success: “We have consistently acted in good faith and will continue to do so, with a relentless commitment to the people of Rhode Island and the long-term success of the UHIP project,” Doern wrote.

“We are not aware of any other agreement of this magnitude for a system that has been delivered,” Raimondo said in a press release. “While we still have more work to do, we would not have reached this agreement with Deloitte if we hadn’t made significant progress over the past two years.”

Hawkins added that last week’s deal was based on in-depth consideration of Rhode Islanders’ needs.

“It’s critical that every decision we make is grounded in what’s best for those customers that rely on us each day,” Hawkins wrote. “This pending deal, which needs approval from our federal partners, does that, and as Governor Raimondo said last week, is unprecedented. She negotiated a potential settlement that gives millions of dollars back to the state, provides highly discounted services and ensures we are not putting people’s benefits at risk.”

Looking to the future, the state is optimistic that the system’s performance will continue to improve.

“We have strong state governance, 450 Deloitte employees working on RI Bridges and strict performance measures in this pending agreement to effectively monitor the further progress of our system,” Hawkins wrote.

]]>http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/raimondo-extends-ri-bridges-contract-deloitte/feed/0http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/raimondo-extends-ri-bridges-contract-deloitte/Professor shares work on black feminist theater for incarcerated womenhttp://feeds.browndailyherald.com/~r/BrownDailyHerald/~3/x6oyxDeQ3AU/
http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/professor-shares-work-black-feminist-theater-incarcerated-women/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 04:16:38 +0000http://www.browndailyherald.com/?p=2834585While it is unusual for drama clubs and the crisis of mass incarceration to share ground in a line of inquiry, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Lisa Biggs spoke about the nexus of the two during a presentation Tuesday.

Biggs’ work investigates the impact of theater programs for incarcerated women and was the focus of her talk in the ongoing “What I Am Thinking About Now” series, which is hosted by the University’s Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. Biggs’ talk included a reading from her forthcoming book on the role of the arts in “rehabilitative” prison programming for incarcerated women, who represent the fastest-growing demographic of the United States’ prisoner population.

Biggs described her book as a “combined ethnography-historiography about four theater programs for women who are incarcerated,” which emphasizes instances of black feminist theater. Black feminist theater features “black women’s stories at the center of the narrative,” which she considers especially important in light of the often racist, classist backgrounds of historical feminist movements, she said.

“It’s a chance to engage with your interior landscape as an artist,” Biggs said of the theater programs, adding that engagement in black feminist theater in particular often involves an “ethos of caring.”

Biggs’ talk brought to light the fact that the crisis of mass incarceration has left black women disproportionately stuck in jails. She cited the low median income of black women and noted how it can cause problems for those who have struggled with addiction. Often, these women are financially unable to continue treatment outside of the “28-day programs” of detoxification that are sometimes offered inside of prisons. Black women unable to pay their bail have a median income of just over $9,000, which the ACLU reports is nearly five times less than the median income of non-incarcerated white men.

“Our prisons are for punishment,” Biggs said, criticizing the fact that facilities are not designed to truly rehabilitate their inmates. She described the prison system as intended to “contain and immobilize people who we think are problematic,” adding that “they are not for helping people.”

Biggs focuses her energy on answering the question of how theater can make a difference in a moment of crisis for a broken system. She described the final decades of the war on drugs and how it aimed to undermine the
“urban communities that had previously been engaged in Civil Rights, Black Power” and similar movements. In those years, artistic expression played a role in “transforming the culture,” she said.

“This work with people behind bars is an extension of the whole Black liberation struggle,” she added, noting that artists have been working with criminalized communities for a long time. “In some ways it’s not new; what is new is the number of people behind bars.”

Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies Paget Henry attended Biggs’ talk and said that while he was knowledgeable about some of the problems involved, the presentation was still informative. “The fact that (mass incarceration) disproportionately affects peoples of African descent is a major concern,” he said. “But the big thing for me personally was the statistics on female incarceration that the talk revealed.” He was struck by the undifferentiated nature of prison environments regardless of the crime and that some of those who go to prison have been falsely accused. “It’s hard to imagine something worse than … being imprisoned for a crime you didn’t commit.”

The question of whether the arts can be truly “healing” brought about a lively conversation after Biggs’ talk, as some in the room raised doubts about the usefulness of thinking about art or theater in a clinical context. Biggs holds no illusions that theater can take the place of real systemic change or rehabilitative efforts. However, she described inmates as finding the programs “life-affirming,” a consequence of the fact that few other spaces are “meant to be a dialogue” in the way that theater is intended. “It’s not therapy, but I think it can be therapeutic,” she said.

]]>http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/professor-shares-work-black-feminist-theater-incarcerated-women/feed/0http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/professor-shares-work-black-feminist-theater-incarcerated-women/Reed ’21: The Virtue of Failurehttp://feeds.browndailyherald.com/~r/BrownDailyHerald/~3/mH7jUhd9Cm8/
http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/reed-21-virtue-failure/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 04:14:37 +0000http://www.browndailyherald.com/?p=2834593Imagine not being allowed to fail. Imagine growing up, seeing failure on the horizon, only to have your parents swoop in and save you. You never learn from your mistakes, because you rarely make any of consequence. Or more precisely, you’re never allowed to make any of consequence.

The recent college admission scandal has thrown this issue into stark relief. 33 parents — celebrities, executives and otherwise wealthy individuals — were indicted on federal charges surrounding attempts to cheat on standardized tests and bribe university officials in order to secure their children’s admittance to top schools. In most instances, their kids didn’t even know it was happening. Parents like actress Lori Loughlin paid $500,000 in bribes to University of Southern California athletic officials to get her two daughters designated as recruited athletes in order to ensure their acceptance. Overall, nearly $6 million in bribes were paid to university officials across the country.

Most people have focused their anger on the parents and the admissions “consultants” who helped them cheat the system. This is understandable. But few seem to be discussing what these fraudsters, and more broadly, an entire generation of parents, have stolen from their children. The helicopter parents of this country have robbed a generation of the opportunity to cope with failure and learn from it.

There’s no strict definition of helicopter parent, and the point at which helpful becomes harmful isn’t always clear. But recent trends show that more parents are falling into the overparenting trap. This includes measures like doing your kid’s homework, calling their college professors and, for the wealthy among us, paying millions of dollars to secure their admission to Yale. These parents go far beyond the bounds of reason to ensure their children’s success. It’s well-intentioned, but misguided, and in some cases can spawn corruption.

It seems hardly necessary to prove that we benefit from failure. But to show what exactly these parents are depriving their kids of, let us enumerate some ways failing helps us grow.

To err is human. Success and failure help us learn which discipline best suits us. Failure makes us more resilient. There will inevitably be times where things don’t go our way. It’s important to learn how to deal with failure early in life. Failing is a natural product of taking risks, and a risk-free life seems hardly worth living.

Sure, the parents caught up in this admissions scandal cheated their kids’ ways into school. And the thought that some kid might have been rejected from their dream school to make room for one of these crooks’ kids is sickening. But these parents are symptomatic of a wider cultural issue: overreaching and overprotective parents have attempted to childproof every aspect of their kid’s lives. The window during which parents are responsible for their children is longer,and the degree of involvement is deeper, than it has ever been.

A large part of this generation is growing up without ever having fallen flat on their faces. It is easy to sit back and snicker at them for having been coddled. I’ve heard many people say, “They’re in for a rude awakening.” But let us not forget that these young people are this country’s future work-force, our future leaders. If they don’t know how to operate in the real world, then we’re all in big trouble.

Perhaps most alarming are the segments of society where this kind of upbringing is most common. Rich kids have always been more privileged than the rest. But, even if this isn’t new, it’s certainly gotten worse. And it should worry everyone that the children of society’s elites, those who are most likely, statistically, to have power and wealth as adults, are also those least likely to have experiences with the real world consequences of failure.

Perpetual invigilation is impossible and anyways undesirable. Failure is the source of improvement. If you always succeed, by all means continue doing what you’re doing. But artificial success breeds incompetence. Ironically, while helicopter parents are busy trying to prevent their children’s failure, they’re actually ensuring it.

Andrew Reed ’21 can be reached andrew_reed@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

]]>http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/reed-21-virtue-failure/feed/0http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/reed-21-virtue-failure/Aman ’20: It’s time to scrap the $70 re-admission feehttp://feeds.browndailyherald.com/~r/BrownDailyHerald/~3/myy-VGxSSss/
http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/aman-20-time-scrap-70-re-admission-fee/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 04:10:08 +0000http://www.browndailyherald.com/?p=2834594I first discovered that students who take a leave of absence are required to pay a $70 re-admission fee after reading an op-ed submitted by Soyoon Kim ‘19 and Addy Schuetz ‘19.5, the leavetaking coordinators at the Curricular Resource Center. The idea that we charge our students a fee to return to Brown immediately left a sour taste in my mouth. This fee not only financially burdens returning leave-takers, but also sends the message that leave-takers are no longer part of the Brown community.

First, leave-takers must pay this fee, regardless of their financial situation. In contrast, the University has a robust waiver program for first-year and transfer applicant fees. For example, the application fee is automatically waived for high schoolers applying to Brown who are enrolled in, or eligible for, the federal free or reduced-price lunch program. Transfer applicants who have taken the SAT as well as students who can get a letter from a “dean, advisor or financial aid officer at their home institution certifying that the application fee constitutes a financial hardship” can get a waiver from the College Board.If the University can outline means for financial accessibility to prospective students, why can they not do the same for leave-takers who are already members of our community?

This issue is compounded by the fact that while leave-takers do not pay tuition during their leave, they also do not receive any financial aid. This might not seem like a big deal at first, but students who rely on aid for room and board will lose this critical assistance during a trying period in their life. Furthermore, on-campus jobs classified as “student employment” are only available to “active students,” meaning leave-takers may lose their primary source of income .

I understand the reasoning behind requiring applicants to shoulder the cost of reviewing their application. An application fee discourages students from sending out an excessive number of applications (some may argue that application fees do not serve this purpose, as some students have significantly more resources than others — this is an important but separate conversation). But neither of these justifications apply to leave-takers. If a leave-taker desires to transfer to another university, they will pay that university’s application fee, but no leave-taker should be forced to pay a fee to return home. Requiring a re-admission fee sends the message that leave-takers are no longer members of the Brown community.

Each year, about 200 students take a leave of absence, meaning the annual revenue that returning leave-takers could generate is approximately $14,000 — a tiny sum compared to the University’s $1.1 billion operating budget. Furthermore, Brown’s website on leavetaking does not provide any justification for the existence of the fee — it is simply an unquestioned requirement. The financial burden on individuals, along with the symbolic costs of this fee, clearly outweighs its benefits.

Finally, no other Ivy League University appearstorequireare-admissionfee.If our peer institutions have the compassion to welcome their leave-takers back without shaking them down, so should we.

There are already efforts underway to eliminate the fee, or at least create a need-based waiver. The CRC website currently states, “There is currently no waiver available for this fee. However, if this fee is a hardship or concern, please contact leavetakers@gmail.com to help petition for a waiver in the future.” More recently, according to a Herald article, Schuetz and Kim have “sent an official proposal (over January break) to the Dean of the College who, along with a working group on financial need, is in the process of reviewing it.”

While creating a need-based waiver is a step in the right direction, this fee shouldn’t exist in the first place. It’s high time Brown eliminates this harmful and insulting fee.

Rebecca Aman ’20 can be reached rebecca_aman@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

Over the past few weeks, the Advancement Office has come under increased scrutiny by the Brown community following news that the Office had helped facilitate private dinners.

One email from the Advancement Office asked a professor to write a note to the Admissions Office after he met with a student: “If you gained positive insights into his character, aptitude or motivation that would be helpful to the Board of Admission, it would be appreciated if you could forward a note to the Admission Office reflecting your impressions for inclusion in his dossier.”

In additional emails sent between 2015 and 2018, reviewed by The Herald, the Advancement Office asked a faculty member to meet with three different prospective students, calling each “a trustee referral.”

The faculty members who provided these emails requested anonymity for fear of professional repercussions.

Students can meet with faculty members through a “parent engagement team in the Division of Advancement (that) coordinates a campus visit program open to all Brown (alums), parents and friends,” wrote Senior Vice President for Advancement Sergio Gonzalez in an email to The Herald. “This is one of many ways we maintain strong relationships with members of our community.”

The meetings between faculty and certain prospective students do not translate into advantages in the admission process, Gonzalez wrote. “Advancement staff have no influence on the admission process and we make it clear to the families who use the program that a campus visit does not increase a prospective student’s chance of admission.” Gonzalez acknowledged that the Advancement Office gave faculty members the option to contribute impressions of a student to help the Admission Office see a “student’s interest in Brown and active engagement with our campus.”

But “the division discontinued this practice two years ago,” he wrote.

But The Herald reviewed an April 2018 email from the Advancement Office which told a professor to “feel free to send a note to the Admission Office for inclusion” in the student’s file after the professor had met with a student and voluntarily provided his positive impression of their conversation to Advancement. The professor requested anonymity for fear of professional repercussions.

Professor of Biology Kenneth Miller ’70 said that over the past 20 years, he has been contacted around two or three times a year by the Advancement Office with requests to meet with certain prospective students.

“When I get an email of this sort from the Advancement Office, I know very well what it means,” Miller said. “The Advancement Office clearly considers this student and their family a prospect for future fundraising.”

The Admission Office was not aware of any effort by the Advancement Office to coordinate these meetings and solicit faculty feedback on the students, wrote Dean of Admission Logan Powell in an email to The Herald. “I cannot recall even a single instance of learning that a prospective student’s letter of recommendation from a faculty member came as a result of interactions with Advancement,” he wrote. “A surface-level recommendation based on a brief interaction and no direct and sustained experience working with a prospective student would offer very little to an application.”

Miller said he is usually asked to show students around campus and sometimes meet their parents. After these meetings with prospective students, Miller said the Advancement Office occasionally asked him to provide an impression of the visit. “Usually I simply decline,” he said.

Miller does not recall being asked to submit his impressions to the Admission Office over the past few years.

Former Professor of Public Policy and Political Science Darrell West wrote an article last week for the Brookings Institution on how the University provides “special treatment for offspring of the prominent and well heeled,” including meetings with certain prospective students facilitated by Advancement.

In an interview with The Herald, West said during his time at the University from 1982 to 2008, he was contacted by the Advancement Office to meet with prospective students “between half a dozen and a dozen times.” He received these requests by email and over the phone. Because West no longer has access to his University email, The Herald was not able to review these exchanges.

“It was clear that (the students) were the offspring either of somebody rich or famous,” West said. Such meetings fostered “inequity between the children of the rich and famous versus first-generation students because the typical applicant isn’t famous or wealthy,” he said.

But Gonzalez wrote that the Advancement campus visit program benefits alums, “parents and friends from many backgrounds, including individuals who are unlikely to have a philanthropic relationship with the University.”

Meeting with certain prospective students in this manner was standard practice when West worked at the University, he said. “It seemed to be the norm at that time,” he added. “I know it was not limited to me — there were other people who were asked to do the same thing, and people generally do it.”

West was not always asked to write a note on his interactions. But when asked, “sometimes I would write a letter summarizing the meeting and giving the impressions of the student,” he said.

In light of the recent nationwide admissions scandal, Miller has decided he will no longer meet with prospective students in this context. “I’ve thought double, triple and quadruple about whether or not I should say yes to the Advancement Office on this, and I’ve decided I’m not going to do it anymore,” he said. “They haven’t contacted me yet this year, but if they do, I’ll probably say no.”

Another faculty member who asked to remain anonymous for fear of personal repercussions said that between 2012 and 2014, they were asked by the Advancement Office to meet with prospective students on three separate occasions. Though they have not been contacted to do so since, the professor also decided after the admissions scandal that they would not fulfill future requests from the Advancement Office to meet with prospective students.

This professor was not asked to write impressions of the students they met, but said they felt that meeting with certain prospective students gives them unfair advantages regardless.

In his email to The Herald, Powell said the University maintains a commitment to “the highest levels of fairness and integrity in our admissions process,” adding that the process “is fair and equitable to every student.”

— With additional reporting by Jacob Lockwood

This article appeared in print under the headline “U. office plans meetings between faculty, prospective students.”

]]>http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/advancement-office-arranges-meetings-faculty-certain-applicants/feed/0http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/advancement-office-arranges-meetings-faculty-certain-applicants/Hay Library’s Special Collections offer more than a human skin-bound bookhttp://feeds.browndailyherald.com/~r/BrownDailyHerald/~3/CeFFmU507EA/
http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/hay-librarys-special-collections-offer-human-skin-bound-book/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 04:04:40 +0000http://www.browndailyherald.com/?p=2834586Home to a manifold of rare books, unique statues and special artifacts, the John Hay Library is the second oldest library on the University’s campus and a popular studying site for students. From cast models of Lincoln’s fists to rows upon rows of tiny British soldier figures, the Hay houses an abundance of remarkable objects.

The Hay came to be the establishment for these collections through Andrew Carnegie, famous American industrialist and business magnate, who donated half of the funds required under the condition that the University would name the building after John Hay, Secretary of State to Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

Lincoln Collection

When entering the Hay’s Lincoln Collection rooms, students are greeted with numerous Lincoln portraits peering over 30,000 objects of various mediums.

Originally owned by Charles Woodbury McLellan, the collection was donated to the University by John D. Rockefeller Jr. 1897 in 1923. With original letters, photographs and needlepoint embroidery, the giant collection is a testament to the former U.S. president’s legacy as an almost mythical figure celebrated by the masses for preserving the union.

In the early 20th century, establishing collections of Lincoln memorabilia and artifacts became popular for large universities and institutions. Holly Snyder, curator of the Lincoln and the Hay Collection, elaborated on how the University came to possess the expansive collection.

“The University wanted one of sufficient size and scope, so they went shopping for one, and it took them until 1923,” Snyder said. “At that point, there were about five really great Lincoln collections … but the fifth one came up for sale, … and the University got John D. Rockefeller Jr. to buy it and give it to the University as a gift.”

The guestbook in the center of the room is one of the Lincoln Collection’s prized possessions; visitors from 1929 to today have signed their names in its pages. The book tends to be open to the 1961 section, where civil rights leader and activist Martin Luther King Jr. signed his name as a guest. Another popular researcher who frequented the Hay’s Lincoln Collection rooms was American poet Carl Sandburg. Sandburg, who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning Lincoln biography, also signed the guestbook in 1931.

The Hay’s Lincoln Collection is also known for its permanent display of two of Lincoln’s life masks, as well as cast models of his fists. One of the common myths about the Hay’s Lincoln Collection is that it contains a death mask, which is obtained through a plaster impression of the individual’s face at the time of their death. “There was such a huge outpouring of grief that it would have been completely improper to do that,” Snyder said. Snyder then detailed the backgrounds of both life masks that the collection houses.

“About the time Lincoln became (a) candidate, … (sculptor) Leonard Volk said to himself, ‘I would like to make a statue of this man,’ … and he prevailed on Lincoln to let him put plaster on his face,” Snyder said. She then went on to describe the arduous process behind the production of the life masks. “This is not comfortable, to do the life mask,” she said. “You had to have straws stuck up your nose so you can breathe during the twenty minutes it takes for the plaster to set.”

One of the most striking features behind Volk’s Lincoln life mask at the Hay is that Lincoln’s eyes are absent; instead, there are two shallow holes. “Lincoln did not like the way that the eyes came out, so Volk says that (Lincoln) put his thumbs in and gouged out the eyes,” Snyder said. Both masks were used as references for a multitude of other sculptures and paintings of Lincoln.

Napoleon Collection

Located on the top floor of the Hay, the Napoleon Collection room houses a multitude of manuscripts, art objects, rare books, miniatures and portraits of French military figure and former emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Donated by the widow of William Henry Hoffman 1884 in 1924, the origins of Hoffman’s deep fascination with collecting Napoleon-alia are difficult to trace.

“This is how we get a lot of special collections at Brown,” Snyder said. “Alumni go off and do quirky and interesting things and give us the results.”

The majority of the Napoleon Collection relates to the iconography of the famed figure. However, one of the artifacts in the collection actually belonged to Napoleon — a chocolate set made of porcelain and designed to serve liquid chocolate. The inscribed ‘N’s on the set indicate Napoleon’s ownership.

“I personally like the chocolate set,”Snyder said . “Drinking chocolate, it’s not the kind of thing you imagine Napoleon as doing. It seems a little too aristocratic, but maybe he had an aristocratic bent.”

The Napoleon Collection also contains two of Napoleon’s death masks. Located near a number of portraits, viewers can compare Napoleon’s actual facial impression with artistic interpretations.

“You can see his teeth are a little bit crossed,” Snyder said. “Which doesn’t appear in most images, and Napoleon (usually) doesn’t have an open-mouth smile, so maybe he was a little self-conscious about the way his teeth looked.”

The creation of Napoleon’s death masks is shrouded in mystery. Despite his aversion to having a death mask completed, artists and sculptors raced to impress his face in plaster after his death, which was met with significantly less public grief than Lincoln’s. The historical record remains murky, however, as it is unclear who arrived first to take the first death mask. Another striking feature of Napoleon’s death masks are the seeming gauntness of the figure’s face compared to usual youthful portrayals in portraits. The University’s masks are possibly copies, but the realistic impression of the leader’s face is still astonishing.

“I always found (the death mask) remarkable because it humanizes Napoleon,” Snyder said. “He has certain facial characteristics that don’t come through in painted portraits, (especially) since we don’t have any photographs.”

Other objects in the Napoleon Collection include miniature figures and giant needlepoint scenes of his family on fabric. Within the walls of the Napoleon Collection room, adorned with a French fabric depicting embroidered bees — a symbol of empires — visitors are able to view coins, medals, porcelains and much more relating to the famed figure.

Other Special Objects

The Hay is also home to a number of other rare artifacts and unique objects in the library’s Special Collections. Managed by the Special Collections staff, about 300 different collections are bought and preserved for exhibits and student use, according to the Hay’s website. Open to everyone, the Hay encourages students and other University community members to access their special objects in the Reading Room.

Heather Cole, a curator for the library’s literary, theatrical and musical collections, manages and directs the Hay’s acquisition and preservation of special objects. She elaborated on the myriad of artifacts that the Hay houses, especially the human skin-bound books, which are famed among students.

“There are books in our collections that are bound in human skin; that’s a practice called anthropodermic-bibliopegy,” Cole said. For example, “there was a practice where criminals would give their confessions before their executions, and their confessions were bound in their own skin.”

But the politics surrounding the human skin-bound books can be thorny. “There are issues of consent,” Cole said. “Whose skin is it that gets used? … If it’s a female patient in the nineteenth century without a lot of agency or autonomy, then it becomes a little problematic.”

One particular human skin-bound book is very fragile and is not available for public viewing. “(The book) has become sort of this larger-than-life, grotesque thing for students,” Cole said. “But I think that it is important to remember that it is a person, and you (need to) think of all the circumstances that brought that book into being.”

Besides the human skin-bound book, the Hay Library houses numerous other equally, if not even more riveting, artifacts. The collections include rare, first-edition books and one of the largest comic book collections in the country, which includes a first-edition printing of “Captain Marvel” and “Black Panther.”

In addition, the Hay owns a comprehensive collection of American poetry and plays that was established in the nineteenth century. These literary texts, such as plays from early Chinese theater in San Francisco, include works by marginalized artists of color.

“We have materials by more unknown people too,” Cole added, emphasizing the enormous historical weight of the Hay’s lesser-known objects. “We have a really strong LGBTQ collection that I curate,” she said. “That’s something not a lot of people know about yet. There are papers from trans activists like Kate Bornstein or writers like Caitlin Kiernan. … We have a really large gay pulp collection.”

The Hay acquires its materials either through purchase or gifts. Specific endowments by donors can inform the Hay’s Special Collections staff’s acquisition of certain materials lacking in their collections or that students are particularly interested in. “For example, I decide whose voices are not represented in the collection, so I’ll try to find those to add,” Cole said. Through this process, the Hay tries to create a comprehensive collection of items that represent those who have been also historically marginalized or forgotten, which is one of the library’s objectives.

Students can access information about the Hay’s Special Collections through an online guide. Titled “Fields of Hay,” this student-created website allows other students to learn how to access certain information or materials or discover items that may be of interest to them based on their concentration.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Hay library houses vast collection.”

]]>http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/hay-librarys-special-collections-offer-human-skin-bound-book/feed/0http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/hay-librarys-special-collections-offer-human-skin-bound-book/Card deck aims to solve R.I. cold caseshttp://feeds.browndailyherald.com/~r/BrownDailyHerald/~3/Nid0DnNqIrE/
http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/card-deck-aims-solve-r-cold-cases/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 04:03:25 +0000http://www.browndailyherald.com/?p=2834588In a new deck of playing cards that aims to solve Rhode Island’s cold cases, the four traditional suits have a new twist — each card features red text with the words “UNSOLVED HOMICIDE.”

Launched by local detectives and available for purchase, each card features bolded red text above a photo of a victim, their name and a description of their case.

On the deck’s King of Hearts, Carl Seebeck smiles from the card face, which reads: “On August 29, 2008 at 4:00 a.m., Carl Seebeck was walking on Broadway in Pawtucket on his way to the bus stop when he was shot and killed. Witnesses heard loud music, a car accelerating and observed a suspect fleeing the area.”

Seebeck’s daughter, Kristen Butler, said that her father “was rough around the edges, but he had a heart of gold.” Butler is still seeking resolution, often checking with law enforcement on the status of her father’s case: “I call on my dad’s birthday, I call … around Father’s Day, I call around the anniversary and then I call around the holidays.”

Butler hopes that the cards — part of an initiative started by Pawtucket’s Detective Susan Cormier last year to raise awareness of cold cases — may encourage people to come forward with tips that could help law enforcement reach a resolution. The cards feature unsolved homicide cases from across the state that date back to 1947.

In these types of cases, “it’s kind of at a standstill where you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Cormier said. Often, cases remain unsolved for years because they fall off the public radar.

“The most common line I hear from people (is), ‘I thought that case was already solved,’” Cormier said. “When it’s no longer in the public view, they think that the case is solved, and they just didn’t hear anything more about it.”

She thinks that these cards will correct such misconceptions and “get the community talking once again … to generate some new leads.”

Cases also go cold because people with information are unwilling to share it with detectives at the time of the crime. But often circumstances may have changed, and the cold-case cards may encourage people to share tips that they were hesitant to disclose when the case was fresh, Cormier said.

“Now, people have moved, they’ve gotten older, they don’t see that person who may have been a suspect anymore, they live in a different state. … Loyalties change, and people are more apt to come forward,” she added.

In addition to selling the cards to the public on the Cold Case R.I. website,Pawtucket’s Cold Case Unit has sold 4,500 decks to the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institute, where they are then sold to inmates.

The cards have already generated many tips, Cormier said. If these lead to solved cases, she will explore the option of swapping these cards out for new ones and creating a second edition of the deck.

While these cards are new to Rhode Island, the concept has existed for decades. To help soldiers during the Iraq War, the United States distributed cards featuring Saddam Hussein and members of his army. And in 2005, a sheriff in Polk County, Florida decided to use this strategy to help solve cold cases. Today, 20 states including Rhode Island and three different countries have cold-case cards.

The cards have been particularly successful in nearby Connecticut, where detectives have created four decks featuring different victims. Connecticut’s first edition of the cards helped solve six cases, its second edition helped solve 10 cases and its third solved four more, according to the CT Department of Correction website.

Cormier brought her deck of Connecticut cold-case cards to her bosses and proposed creating a deck for Rhode Island. They were enthusiastic about the idea, so she pitched it to the executive board of the Department of Corrections and then the company that supplies the commissary in the ACI, which agreed to sell the cards — and no other playing cards — to the inmates.

Cormier sent letters to all of Rhode Island’s police chiefs, asking their departments’ detectives to submit their cold cases for the initiative.

Although there was an application process that required a consent form signed by victims’ surviving family members, exactly 52 cases were submitted, just enough for a full deck.

“The families absolutely loved it,” Cormier said. “They were very pleased to see that … people were still working on these cases, and we still cared.”

This was certainly the case for Butler, who sees the cards as both a tribute to her father and “another chance … to get the word out.”

Butler often shares the cards on Facebook and said her friends share them, too. She also carries around a deck and shows them to people who are interested — but she never plays with them.

“I consider them sacred, and I carry them around just as a reminder that it’s not just my family. … There (are) 51 other families that are going through what I’m going through,” Butler said. “It’s almost symbolic, for me to know that I’m not alone in this situation.”

For Cormier, this initiative is all about the families of the victims.

“We just really want to get a resolution for the families, whether there’s someone that can still be prosecuted in the case or not,” Cormier said. “Most of the families … want a face to who did this to their loved one.”

]]>http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/card-deck-aims-solve-r-cold-cases/feed/0http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/card-deck-aims-solve-r-cold-cases/New businesses move into space formerly occupied by Café Paragonhttp://feeds.browndailyherald.com/~r/BrownDailyHerald/~3/HO9XjpSh56Q/
http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/03/21/new-businesses-move-space-formerly-occupied-cafe-paragon/#respondThu, 21 Mar 2019 04:02:35 +0000http://www.browndailyherald.com/?p=2834589The Ocean State’s first Chase Bank is coming to Thayer this summer — but that’s not all. In the space formerly occupied by Café Paragon, Brown students will have access to all their basic needs: the bank, current occupants Vivi Bubble Tea and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, an upstairs space with student housing and a shop that sells glass wares.

Chase Bank’s move into 224 Thayer Street is a part of the company’s retail expansion into the Greater Boston area, wrote Carolyn Evert, vice president of northeast regional communications for JPMorgan Chase, in an email to The Herald.

“We are actively hiring for our Providence branches, and we expect to have two branches open by the end of 2019, with a total of 12 branches in the next few years,” Evert wrote.

JPMorgan Chase recently added bank branches in the greater D.C. and Philadelphia areas and plans to have “approximately 30 percent of branches … in low-to-moderate income communities,” according to a company press release about its New England expansion.

“New branches will include modern design elements and feature open, collaborative spaces with ample room for meetings and ‘Chase Chats,’ a new series of small group sessions focused on financial health,” the release described.

The bank will join nearby Santander and Citizens Bank branches, which are also easily accessible from campus. The University was not involved with the bank’s opening near campus, wrote Brian Clark, director of news and editorial development, in an email to The Herald.

The Mitrelis Family Limited Partnership, which owned Café Paragon and currently owns 224 Thayer and Andreas’ down the street, plans to remain involved in the building by developing the remaining space for both housing and retail use, said Tammy Mitrelis.

The housing is intended for students and will have shared kitchens and bathrooms, Mitrelis said, adding that pricing will be “probably competitive with the neighborhood.”

A “glass gallery” or smoke shop will also occupy a part of the building, Mitrelis said. It will be the third such shop within a few blocks, joining Kind Connection and Spectrum India, which also sell glass wares.

The Mitrelis family has a long relationship with College Hill. Paragon first opened in 1994 before closing summer 2018, after two decades in business. According to their website, the restaurant had earned accolades for “Best Burgers, Best Salad and Best Octopus,” from Rhode Island Monthly and the Providence Phoenix. Before Paragon opened, the family had also owned a restaurant called Spats, which was previously located within 224 Thayer.

During the past five years, Kartabar, Au Bon Pain, Nice Slice, Shanghai and Johnny Rockets are among the establishments that have closed on Thayer.Many of those spaces now host new tenants, such as By Chloe and B. Good.

Rémy Poisson ’22 , who grew up in Providence, said he was sad to see the restaurant close. “I went in high school a lot, they had really good french fries. I usually would go in the summer because it was nice to eat outside, and they had these little chairs outside.”

“It’s one of the last of a dying breed on Thayer Street, it’s a restaurant, … we’re kind of in short supply now. As for menu items, their baked ziti was absolutely delicious,” said Jack Wrenn MA’18 GS.

“I was under the impression that they were renovating. I held out hope. I only discovered they were actually closing last week,” Wrenn said. “I loudly lamented it … ‘No, my baked ziti!’”